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What Can I Do for Disabled People?

 This is both a rhetorical question, as well as one I am willing to answer. First of all, listen to us and acknowledge us as your fellow human beings (although I am personally an otherkin, but that is the intersection between neurodivergence and gender for me). Acknowledge people for who and what they are.

Disabled is an identity, much like gender, race, class, religion, etc. Disabled people are cherished and important members of the community, even if society doesn't always treat us this way. There are many inventions, including personal computers, that would not exist without Disabled people who possessed exceptional talents. Autism is NOT new and has an entire history behind it. There were many scientists, even before the term "science" was coined, who were considered eccentric by their peers, but went on to invent many devices far ahead of their time, often not to the scientist's credit. Many of them were nonspeaking most, if not all, of the time.

This brings me to the topic of communication, which can be very difficult for me as an Autistic person due to the complexity of its nature. I can only do so much in spoken word, and people often misunderstand what I am saying because I speak in an atypical way. This has led me to start using AAC as a secondary form of communication. The thoughts in my head do not reach my lips the way I often want them to, so this is an invaluable tool. While I am going to be required to brush up on my communication skills if I plan to be an effective social worker, hopefully I can get licensed as a peer support specialist in the meantime to introduce myself to the world of helping other neurodivergent people.

This brings me to yet another topic... Considering I am going to be getting a master's degree in social work anyway, this could open the door to other career fields besides just therapy, such as Disability Advocacy and social programs that I could employ to help other Disabled people.

Ultimately, I can't say for sure what all I can do as a single person in all of this, other than keep writing and promoting my work, so I am looking to the Disabled community to help along the way and fill me in on things they would like included or talked about on my blog. The primary aim of the blog initially was to look at Neurodiversity from multiple academic lense. I am extending a hand to the rest of the Disabled community to be a more inclusive blogging platform. 

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